Almost Vegan

These are really, really great. They have a whole “dip’em, dunk’em, scoop’em” thing on the back of the box, so I pulled out some Tofutti, Better Than Cream Cheese. YUM!

It’s cold and I need a little comfort these days so out comes the Cream of Wheat. Maybe you think I’m nuts, but if you have never, or haven’t tried it since becoming vegan, get yourself some Cream of Wheat.
The trick is to toss in a handful of raisins just after you poured the cream of wheat into the boiling water. Then the raisins get all plump and juicy. I use water when making it and then pour nice cold soy milk over to eat. Yum…cozy.

I’ve been sick the last week or so, ever since the election. (no kidding) Just a cold.

So I’ve been eating a lot of soup. I love Amy’s, and I tried both the No Chicken Noodle, which I actually do not really recommend and last night had the Lentil, which I absolutely love.
I had it with some SoyMoon Havarti with Dill (soy cheese, but contains casein) on crackers. A great complement and I must say the Havarti was really good.

Bagels are a great vegan food, because (most) they are naturally vegan and they also make great crackers.

I’ve been looking for some crackers since my big soy cheese windfall and these New York Style Roasted Garlic Bagel Crisps worked, very garlicky though, so be warned.
New York Style also makes plain, and a type that are not vegan.
The crisps have been perfect while polishing off the rest of my SoyMoon Gouda Soy Cheese. Good balance together, the cheese tempers the garlic flavor.

Score!
Now I do this blog because I had a hard time figuring out what I could eat as an “almost vegan” (<– I eat casein) when I first started over 5 years ago. I do not do it for fame or fortune, but I got a bit of good fortune today. I happened upon SoyMoon Feta, soy cheese a few months ago and loved it so I put it on the blog and sent a note and a link to SoyMoon to thank them for their tasty feta cheese. (which I so missed as a vegan, actually almost vegan. *Note: SoyMoon soy cheese contains casein)

This is what I got from them today and a lot more, eat your hearts out! A very nice woman at SoyMoon loved Almost Vegan and wanted me to try the rest of their cheeses so she sent me samples of all of them!
I went to my local coffee house/bakery afterward and got a nice fresh epi and had the gouda and bread with fresh veggies: carrots, green onions, radishes, baby spinach and Italian dressing. Yum, yum, yum! And that’s just the first one of the samples…thank you Mary Kamm, Vice President, research and quality control.
Here’s the note that came with the cheese.
———————
Nov. 3rd, 2004
Dear Denise,
At long last, I am finally able to send you samples of all our SoyMoon soy cheeses. I was waiting on the new samples to make it through production and they have finally arrived.
Please let us know what you think of them. Everyone in our company loves your “Almost Vegan” concept…and I think your web site is a great idea. The vegetarian movement is only going to get stronger…thanks to people like you!
Sincerely,
Mary Kamm
——————-
I love this woman.

George Bush beats John Kerry? Animal crackers!

Yes, these old favorites, Nabisco Animal Crackers are vegan. I just ate a giraffe.

Here’s another surprise cookie treat from Nabisco. I read the package and these are totally vegan.

I find it hard to believe Nabisco is making these products to appeal to vegans. I think it’s a very hopeful sign: It must be becoming cheaper to mass produce food with vegan ingredients than with butter, eggs, or animal products.

Happy Halloween

The secret to really easy vegetable soup is Knorr’s Vegetable Soup, Dip and Recipe Mix.

Instead of creating your own stock, which is messy and takes much longer than I want to spend cooking. Just take two boxes of Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix, 8 cups water and whatever vegetables you have on hand. Cut up the veggies, toss them in the pot with the mix and water, bring it all to a boil. Turn down the heat, simmer for 10 minutes and you got some tasty vegetable soup.
I tossed in a can of garbanzo beans for extra protein. Yum.

I made this last night in just a few minutes (plus 1 hour for baking) and it was extremely tasty, if you can stand to peel the apples.

I go to a fruit stand/market near me called Ridgeway Market. It started as just a stand put up by a local farmer to sell his crop directly to the public and has progressed into a full fledged little market where they still sell their home grown fruit and vegetables. I got a half a bushel of apples and saw this box of Concord Foods Apple Crisp as I was checking out. For 99 cents I thought I’d try it and it was a great pie cop-out, concordfoods.com.
Really, really easy. Just sub vegan margarine for the butter and yum!

I have been really busy lately and so I have been resorting to fast food.

I really like BK Veggies and always feel so normal getting a “burger” and fries at Burger King. Just remember to tell them to leave off the mayo. I feel a little less normal after that, but @#%$ it. I don’t let the look on the person’s face who is giving me my food spoil it for me.
Stop Right There!!!
It has come to my attention that these BK Veggie Burgers are not vegan. An Almost Vegan commenter broke the sad news to me and gave me this link to prove it. Here’s the info contained in the link:
BK VEGGIE